Note: Sick Beard does not actually download TV episodes! It has no download functionality at all, it simply watches RSS feeds and integrates with your existing download applications if possible.

I have been working on this project for a while and it is getting a little more stable so I'm looking for people who'd like to test it out. It is currently in alpha so only experienced users should attempt to use it.

Sick Beard is a PVR for newsgroup users (with limited torrent support). It watches for new episodes of your favorite shows and when they are posted it downloads them, sorts and renames them, and optionally generates metadata for them. It currently supports Newzbin, TVBinz, NZBs.org, and EZTV.it and retrieves show information from theTVDB.com and TVRage.com.

Features include:

automatic torrent/NZB download for new episodes

XBMC library updates and NFO/TBN generation

renames episode files for any show

sends NZBs directly to SABnzbd, prioritizes and categorizes them properly

available for any platform, uses simple HTTP interface

can notify XBMC or use Growl to notify any OSX/Windows PC when new episodes are downloaded

specials and double episode support

There are a few docs on the google code page but you will have to figure it out yourself for the most part (or ask). Before you submit any bugs be sure you have read the few docs that do exist (http://code.google.com/p/sickbeard/w/list). If you find a bug, make SURE you include:

1) the full python traceback
2) your log file
3) what you did to cause the error with as much detail as possible, including your relevant settings, the show/episode if applicable, what time the error occurred (so I can find it in the log file), and exactly what you clicked/did to get the error
4) which revision you have, your OS, your newsgroup client, etc.

The vast majority of the test time logged against Sick Beard has been on Win32 with Newzbin/SABnzbd+. I would like to get some people testing on linux/OSX using any other newsgroup client OR torrent client. Torrents basically haven't been tested at all.

Currently post-processing support is really intended only for SABnzbd+. I am open to adding support for other clients as long as they have the ability to execute a script when a download completes - just ask.

I want to get the current feature set stable before I start adding more, so feature requests will be denied in general. Feel free to add them to the google code page or post them here but unless they're really simple I probably won't be adding them until I get a stable beta out.

This looks very promising. Just tried it on windows and xbmc-live and it works pretty well.

I have sabnzb+ running on my Unraid server, do you know if Sick Beard would work on Unraid also? I was going to just try it but thought i should ask anyway. (dont wont to screw up my server+sabnzb setup)

These questions have nothing to do with Sick Beard and would be better answered on a linux forum, but I'll answer them anyway ;-P If you have further questions though please start a new thread or ask elsewhere so we can keep this one about Sick Beard only.

You can install it wherever you like, just do an svn checkout from whichever dir you want it in. I'd probably have it in ~/sickbeard/

For starting it on startup I have no idea if there's an easier way than messing with your initrd - google or ubuntu forums would help with that. I'd recommend running it in a screen session so you can look at the console rather than having to check the logs all the time - again, google or `man screen' should help you with that as well.